I'll start off by noting that this pedal works for me with the gear I have. It could be totally different on a different rig with a different bass... The gear i use is all in my sig...

I've tried a LOT of overdrives. Everything ranging from light sprinkling of grit to all out assault...
What I've always wanted is one that retains the low end without sacrificing the driven tone and is seamless and transparent. I also wanted one that could go from barely there to bleeding eyeballs.... The closest i found was the Xotic Effects BB Bass Preamp. It's yet another tubescreamer clone but to me it coloured my tone more than I wanted and I had to pretty much max out the bass control to make it match up to my clean tone.... It's still VERY good though! Speaking of Tubescreamers, I also use the Ibanez TSB9 Bass Tubescreamer. It's the same as the guitar version only with a blend AND with two of the fabled jrc4558d chips and separate Bass/Tone controls. Again - colours the tone. Both this and the BB sound amazing on their own but the transition from clean to dirty, which is all I ever use them for, was two noticible...

Enter the Solid Gold Beta...

It sounds FAT. In fact its the first time I've felt my solid state head came close to sounding like a tube head....
For me it's exactly the overdrive i was looking for. It's not a metal players dream but if you want thick driven tones ranging from slight push to melting tubes then this will get you there. I find if I set everything at 12 oclock I can control the texture of the overdrive with the active tone on my Warwick $$. Low fat drive for choruses and turnarounds with my warwick tone dialed back a bit. Add some high end and I have a nice warm grindy overdrive for solos...

Cool idea for a thread. I have a proposal, or possibly a challenge ..... how about ..... when we review something we currently own in here, we post a followup six months later? Do we still like it? Have we found something better? Did it break, did it withstand the slings and arrows of outrageous gigs? Is it still the best/worst thing since ... etc etc.
Mike

Here's another review - I felt the need to get a backup amp. My Markbass Big Bang doesnt like the LOUD gigs and keeps cutting out and this has exposed a risk. Im getting a lot of gigs at the moment and if my one and only amp dies Im in the pooh ;-)

So!
I picked up a Gallien Krueger MB500!

The first thing I noticed is the weight... there aint none. Seriously I thought it was like the fake mobile phones you see at the shops ie for display only. It was like there was nothing in it but it's all there of course :-) So the weight makes lugging it around a breeze. The other thing I noticed is the knob order is the opposite to other amps I've used. Im used to everything going from left to right in this order "Gain, Low, Low Mid, Hi Mid, Treble, Vol". Not so on the MB500... Observe:

It makes no difference in the real world but I still found myself turning the lows down when I was trying to reduce the highs. I had a "THIS AMP IS CRAP" moment till I realised I was having a "DAMN IM A D!CKHEAD" moment instead...

Speaking of the knobs (and I dont mean the punters who ask for pop songs at a blues gig) these knobs are very responsive. You dont need to move them much to make changes. Kind of like the Sansamp BDDI. Turn the bass control about 2mm clockwise and BOOM it's huge... The contour control kind of scoops and crapifies your sound by turning the eq into that smily face thing which I personally hate. If I wanted to sound shite I'd play guitar ;-) but some people dig it... tell me who you are if you do so i can unfriend you... Jokes. Just jokes..

The separate boost and master are awesome. I dont even use it but yeah it's pretty awesome. The supplied pedal is really well built. You could turn the Master B volume all the way down and use it as a mute switch or you can turn it up so that you can boost your solo and make peoples clothes fall off... (do NOT do this at a bikie gig - no therapy will ever fix that!). It actually has a mute switch too. It's a separate switch so it's not like the Markbass LM Tube where you have to pull the volume knob to shut it up. I stopped using the mute on the Markbass cos when you get your volume just right, you dont wanna mess it all up.

There is a limiter switch. I have no idea what it limits. I assume it limits peaks but it could limit asteroids crashing to earth for all I know so i leave that one on just in case... you can thank me later...

Now for the important part - how does it sound?

Effing great...

It doesnt have overdrive or effects etc you can get pedals for that stuff - Its all just good clean tone. It seems a lot louder than my Markbass Big Bang and it seems to have much stronger and punchier tone. It is FAT through my Schroder 1210PL and even the Eden 112. The Markbass clip light is very easy to get flickering. The GK has one but I had to push it pretty hard to get it to light up... oh! The Limiter Switch! thats what that must be for... spewing, I was loving the idea that i was saving the Earth from wayward asteroids...

I bought the GK as a backup and granted the honeymoon period might not be over yet but this amp has already shelved the Markbass for now.

Have any questions about it?
Ask away...

I have a few pedals coming in as well. Dunlop Mini Bass Wah, TC Electronics Mojo Mojo and a EHX Bass Soul Food - Ill review them after I've played with 'em...

I've used it in environments where it shouldnt sound as good as it does but it hasn't failed me yet. When you get to the point where it's just starting to break up its pretty sexy but I dont know how long it could handle that kind of abuse.

I've been using a GK MB500 with it and it sounds great. It's a front ported cab with no tweeter but it IS a wizzy cone speaker so it has that extra cone thingy (dont wanna get TOO technical here)so it has a decent amount of highs and really for it's size, an unbelievable amount of lows. It's not a neodymium speaker but who cares? It's tiny and still only 13 kgs!

I recently got a Markbass CMD121P Combo and these two together sound awesome!

I've paired it with an Eden D112XLT and to be honest I found it offensive but not as offensive as the D112XLT on it's own. It was like some kid bullying me with that taunting nasally "Nyah nyah nyah" sound. I wanted to try two of the EX112s to see if it doubles the awesomeness but I've heard it can get a bit "barky" but thats based on only one opinion...

If you want a cab that can fill a cafe or boutique bar with no PA support (assuming you DONT play death metal etc) then this is heaps of cab...

Recommended and I wont be ditching this any time soon. The CMD on the other hand....